Season 2, Episode 4: The Wanna-Be Ranger

"The Wanna-Be Ranger"
Episode 4
Air Date: September 13, 1994

Oh this episode is just fun!!! I like seeing when the rangers have to fight evil duplicates of themselves and Primator is just a fun monster of the week as you can tell the actors were having fun playing the monster in disguise. So the rangers are playing ball when Zack is a jerk and sneaks up on Kimberly in a Gorilla costume. Apparently, he was performing at his little cousin's birthday. Suddenly, their communicators go off and Zordon tells them to go to the Command Center immediately. They teleport there and find out that do to som planetary alignment/interdimensional thng, Zordon must disappear so he can de-ionize for a while. He leaves Alpha in charge and tells the rangers to protect Angel Grove in his absence. Too bad when Alpha sees a little boy in trouble he decides to help him and leave the Command Center....oh this isn't gonna be good!!! O_o Meanwhile, we get this cool shot of Lord Zedd's chamber/throne room as he prepares to attack in Zordon's absence. He uses his staff on Zack's costume to create a monster called Primator...which is actually not a bad name for a monster! O_O Go figure!!!

Meanwhile, Alpha teleports to the park and scares Bulk and Skull who are busy trying to find the identity of the Power Rangers. Luckily, this is the only appearance by them in the episode, thank god!! So then Alpha runs into the kid in trouble who's looking for his mom and they begin talking. The little kid ain't a bad actor and doesn't irritate surprisingly. YAY!!! His name is Dylan and he wants to teach Alpha how to play soccer; to Alpha's confusion. Primator then notices Alpha with the kid and turns into Billy when Alpha kicks the ball to him. I love David Yost's performance here as well as "and digusted" to Alpha's "busted". It's just so over the top and hilarious. But when Primator's face is reflected onto Alpha's head, Alpha notices he isn't Billy and he turns back into his regular body. What happens next is hilarious as Primator grabs Dylan, the little boy and Alpha tells him to run. Yes, I'm a cruel a-hole!!! ;) Primator wants to Alpha to lead him to the Command Center but Alpha initiates his self destruct mode. Well, that escalated quickly! O_O

Lord Zedd tells him to stop wasting his time with the tin can and to go after the rangers. He does; teleporting to the Youth Center and turning into Zack. I like Walter Jones' acting here, once again, so over the top and hilarious as he tricks Kimberly and Trini into going to the park where Tommy is supposedly losing his powers and needs help. "Mmmm Banana Shake"....hahahaha! At the park, Kimberly and Trini are wondering what's going on when they don't see Tommy or Putties and contact Jason. Zedd then finds it to be the perfect time to attack them with a squad of his Putties and they attack them after failing to get a hold of Jason and the others. It's a decent Puttie fight and afterwards they head back to the Youth Center to find that Tommy is with the other guys and is alright. When they question Zack about why he lied to them, the other guys tell them Zack was with them all along. They figure something is going on and try to contact Alpha but he doesn't answer. They head to the Command Center where Zordon returns from his de-ionizing which still doesn't make sense. O_O So Zordon immediately tells them about Primator and the rangers figure out it was Primator who lied to them; with Kimberly and Trini apologizing to Zack. He also tells them about Alpha and Dylan but also tells them defeating Primator is the most pressing matter. They morph and face off against Primator who during their roll call, cleverly turns into Trini. Jason of course figures out what to do while the others can't figure it out. When the fake Trini attacks him when he asks both of them to fight him, the other rangers blast Primator. They fight him but when he tries to get away, Zack goes after him and they both fall down below. When the rangers find him, it's Primator as Zack attacks him. Primator begins switching between different rangers until he's the Red ranger. Jason for some reason decides to fight him alone; leading Primator to fool the rangers once again as they decide to retreat as he's too powerful for them.

Meanwhile, poor Dylan is looking after Alpha who is minutes away from self-destruction. At the Command Center, Zordon and the rangers are figuring out how to defeat Primator when Zordon shows them in the viewing globe that Primator has a weakness when it comes to mirrors. Luckily, Kimberly never leaves her home without the vacuous tramp...I mean... our reliable Pink ranger!! :) The rangers head back out and for some reason get split up. When Jason, Trini and Billy, the primary color rangers, search for the others, they noticed Tommy's in trouble from losing his powers but Jason quickly discovers it's just Primator as Tommy would never give up. Billy uses Kimberly's mirror...which strangely is blue, not Pink, and has the Triceratops symbol on the back of it. Primator's real form is revealed when he looks at it and when he tries to get away, Kimberly, Zack and Tommy arrive to stop him. He uses his powers to attack all 6 rangers and Lord Zedd then throws bomb at him to make him grow. The rangers call on their Thunderzords while Tommy summons the Dragonzord.

As the Dragonzord arrives, the Mega Thunderzord is formed as they both battle Primator. The Mega Thunderzord then finishes off the monster with it's Thunder Saber as the rangers win. As Alpha is about to self destruct, the rangers arrive and Billy quickly shuts off his self destruct system. Dylan's mom arrives to thank the rangers but it was all Alpha who helped him as they all 6 rangers and Alpha teleport away. At the Command Center, Zordon lectures Alpha about not telling the rangers he left the homebase and put his life at risk. Alpha all disappointed in himself and Trini makes a joke about him being grounded for a 1,000 years. lol  Overall, this was a fun episode and I enjoyed it immensely. I like the fake outs with Primator and watching the rangers get fooled. :)

Final Morph: B+